Examples Of Prejudice In Frankenstein

680 Words2 Pages

Regardless of one’s personality, there is a significant amount of prejudice that is based off of physical appearance and this is a prominent issue. For example, many people can make an opinion on someone based on whether or not one is thin, fat, short, or tall. This problem is displayed in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein with the scientist Victor Frankenstein’s creation of his monster. The Monster cannot escape from the prejudice society has on his physical appearance no matter his intentions. The society that in Mary Shelley’s novel shows the social acceptance is largely influenced off of one’s physical appearance. For example, when Victor firsts creates the Monster, he describes the undesirable features of the monster, “ his teeth of …show more content…

The Monster finds a girl playing in the woods and she ends up slipping and started to drown, “I rushed from my hiding-place and with extreme labour, from the force of the current, saved her and dragged her to shore” (138). The Monster obviously means well for going out of his way to save a girl in which the Monster has never met. The Monster deserves praise for this heroic action, however that is not what he gets, “I was suddenly interrupted by the approach of a rustic, who was probably the person from whom she had playfully fled. On seeing me, he darted towards me, and tearing the girl from my arms . . . the man saw me draw near, he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body and fired. I sank to the ground, and my injurer, with increased swiftness, escaped into the wood” (139). The man who shot the Monster perjured the Monster based off of physical appearance not based off of the actions the Monster took. No matter what the Monster does, he will still be judged solely based on his looks. Another example of the Monster having good intentions is when the Monster tries to convince Victor to make another monster, “ I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself . . . we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another” (125). The Monster has been shunned from society

Open Document